Hector Valdez Albizu’s speech to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the Dominican Republic’s Central Bank pointed out that the “preliminary result of the overall balance of payments during the January 2004-September 2004 period was US$158 million in favor of the Dominican Republic,” and that this will continue to the end of the year and close at US$200 million. This means that from the global financial standpoint, there will not be a foreign gap in payments. Luis Manuel Piantini, a former member of the Monetary Board, told El Caribe reporters that there is no foreign gap, but that there is a problem for the government to make the debt service payments. Luis Nunez, a former director of the CB’s International Department, said that “from a purely public finance point of view, there is a problem because the government has to find the pesos to buy the dollars and pay the debt.” A source close to the IMF and the Paris Club said, in a diplomatic fashion, that “the public sector may have a financial problem with regard to their budget, even though the balance of payments shows a surplus, and that is what we are facing.”